Mei Chaofeng
Mei Chaofeng was the wife of Chen Xuanfeng and student of East Heretic Huang Yaoshi. Later in her life she would also become the teacher of Yang Kang. (*Note: the information provided on this page is based on the new version/third edition of Legend of the Condor Heroes and contains significant differences to the older versions.) Early Life Mei Chaofeng's parents died while she was still at a very young age. Her uncle, unable to raise her, sold her to the rich Jiang family. At the age of 12 she was already quite a beauty. The squire of the Jiang residence was quite attracted to her. One day, while Mei Chaofeng was washing clothes the old man came up to her and attempted to touch her breasts. She pushed him away and because her hands were soapy, the old man's beard became soapy. She began giggling because of the soapy beard when Mrs. Jiang appeared. Thinking Mei Chaofeng was trying to seduce her husband, she hit and scolded Mei Chaofeng. Mrs. Jiang was about to rip out Mei Chaofeng's eyes when East Heretic Huang Yaoshi came just in time and taught the woman a lesson. East Heretic Huang Yaoshi then bought Mei Chaofeng from the Jiang family and took her back to Peach Blossom Island. Through this event, Mei Chaofeng became East Heretic Huang Yaoshi's third disciple. Peach Blossom Island As Mei Chaofeng grew up and became a fair young lady, her master Huang Yaoshi, first elder martial brother Qu Lingfeng and second elder martial brother Chen Xuanfeng became quite taken by her beauty. Qu Lingfeng surpressed his feelings because he was a widower and he didn't want to think of love and knew that Huang Yaoshi was secretly in love with Mei Chaofeng. East Heretic was frustrated for having such feelings. Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng soon grew close with each other. They would often practice martial arts together and he taught her skills and treated her very well. Even though Chen Xuanfeng would sometimes scold her, the two grew to love each other. Their mutual feelings were revealed when on one spring evening, under a peach tree, Chen Xuanfeng suddenly embraced her. Their love was discovered by their elder martial brother Qu Lingfeng, Chen fought him and was defeated. Qu Lingfeng's anger came from feeling that Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng betrayed their teacher because Mei Chaofeng had once vowed to always stay at the side of her teacher. When Huang Yaoshi found out the reason for the fight between Qu and Chen, he grew furious and subsequently and broke Qu Lingfeng's legs and disowned him. From that point forward, Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng were ignored by Huang Yaoshi, no longer being taught anything by him. Huang Yaoshi then left the Peach Blossom Island and came back months later with his new wife. One day, Huang Yaoshi drank too much wine and basically revealed his feelings towards Mei Chaofeng in his drunken state. Some time prior to this, Chen and Mei had secretly married each other and when Chen Xuanfeng heard his teacher's drunken ramblings, he and Mei Chaofeng stole the second volume of Jiu Yin Zhen Jing (which was in Huang Yaoshi's possession from his wife tricking Zhou Botong) and eloped. Jiu Yin Zhen Jing With the stolen second volume of Jiu Yin Zhen Jing, Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng decided to study it. they came to a remote mountain where they trained hard, but after practicing for half a year, they could not understand the true meaning of the text. They realized they only stole the bottom half of the Jiu Yin Zhen Jing. The first half of the scripture contained the fundamental principles to practice the internal techniques. They realized the first half was still with Zhou Botong and the philosophies were fundamentally taoist, completely different from what they had been taught by Huang Yaoshi. Unable to master it, they decided to return to Peach Blossom Island. When they arrived to Peach Blossom Island, they discovered Huang Yaoshi and Zhou Botong engaged in an argument. The two were arguing about the Jiu Yin Zhen Jing and as they argued, one of them attacked. Witnessing this martial arts duel only served to frighten them, making them realize their inferiority. After subduing his opponent Huang Yaoshi spotted the couple. He moved towards them when he heard his infant daughter Huang Rong laughing and calling to him. Huang Yaoshi went over to Huang Rong and this distraction allowed Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng to escape. Chen Xuanfeng, seeing how inferior they were compared to their teacher, became redetermined to one day reach that level. Afterwards Chen used the fiercest martial arts methods he could find in the manual and taught it to Mei Chaofeng after learning it themselves. Although the techniques were unorthodox, they did not require the prerequisite of the first portion of Jiu Yin Zhen Jing Heart. Twin corpses of the Dark Winds Chen Xuanfeng's interpretation of the Jiu Yin White Bone Claw's unorthodox style lead them to believe they needed to practice on actual skulls. The Jiang family, who once owned Mei Chaofeng were the first victims of their cruel methods of training. At the beginning, their abilities became astounding and as they ran across Jiang Hu, they earned the nickname of Twin corpses of the Dark Winds. One day, while they were practicing the Heart Destroying Palm in temple ruins, they were suddenly attacked from all directions by dozens of people. They were lead by their younger martial brother, Lu Chengfeng, who had hated them after having his legs broken by Huang Yaoshi. He had gathered a large group of people to help him capture them to return to their teacher. While they were able to kill 78 men, they were also heavily injured and barely escaped. Among the people they killed was Ke Pixie, older brother of Ke Zhen'e, who they blinded the eyes of. Several months later, they found out that the Seven Masters of Quanzhen were secretly following them. Not wanting to have to face all these martial artists, they left the Central Plains until they reached the Mongolian prairies. Once there, they continued to practice the Nine Yin White Bone Claw and the Heart Destroying Palm. One evening at the mountainside, the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan attacked Mei Chaofeng. Mei Chaofeng was blinded while her husband died from being stabbed by a six year old Guo Jing. Taking her husband's body, she later found the murder weapon, pulling it out of Chen Xuanfeng's body she felt the characters engraved in it, Yang Kang. Assuming Yang Kang had killed her husband, she vowed revenge. She searched his body for the manual, but couldn't find it. She felt around Chen Xuanfeng's body and felt something strange on his chest. He had engraved the manual into his chest so no one could steal it. Taking the piece of skin with the manual written on it, she hid in the cave, planning to learn the internal techniques in order to get revenge. Yang Kang Two days passed, Mei Chaofeng was very hungry. Suddenly, she heard a large army on horseback pass by the hole. From their dialect, she realized they were from the Jin Empire. She came out and asked them for food. The leader of the army saw her pitiful state and decided to give her shelter, bringing her back to the palace. Afterwards, she discovered that the leader was actually the sixth son of the Jin emperor. She stayed and swept the ground in the back gardens for them, but also secretly trained in the evening. She was able to practice for several years without anyone noticing anything. People that saw her only thought of her as a pitiful, blind, widowed woman. One evening, the mischievous young prince, Wanyan Kang (Yang Kang) went looking for birds' eggs in the garden late at night. Yang Kang saw Mei Chao Feng practicing with her silver whip and coerced her into teaching him. Mei Chaofeng taught him three moves and he learned them extremely quickly. Pleased with his progress, She also passed on to him the Jiu Yin White Bone Claw and the Heart Pushing Palm. She made Yang Kang take the oath of not telling anyone, she told him she would kill him if he told anyone. Back to Mongolia Several years passed the prince wanted to go to Mongolia. She was able to go back with the prince by telling him she wanted to offer a sacrifice for her husband's grave. Her real intentions were to get revenge on the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. Unexpectedly, the Seven Masters of Quanzhen were all in Mongolia. Being blinded, she knew there was no way get revenge with the Quanzhen masters there as well. Her trip to Mongolia, however, was not in vain because she was able to get Ma Yu to explain portions of Jiu Yin's taoist internal cultivation techniques to her. After she returned to the palace, she went to the tunnel to practice diligently. Her internal strength improved, but later on her lack of Taoist knowledge and instruction caused her to suffer tremendously and resulted in paralysis in her lower body. Forgiveness from her Teacher Guo Jing would later walk into this same tunnel that the paralyzed Mei Chaofeng was. Mei Chaofeng began threatening Guo Jing for instruction on the Taoist Internal Cultivation. Guo Jing was finally saved by Huang Rong when Huang Rong revealed herself from the bushes and as the daughter of Mei Chaofeng's teacher, East Heretic Huang Yaoshi and convinced Mei Chaofeng Huang Yaoshi was coming. As Huang Rong left with Guo Jing they encountered Ouyang Ke. Huang Rong told Mei Chaofeng to fight off Ouyang Ke and in exchange, she would speak favourably about Mei Chaofeng to her father. Mei Chaofeng quickly struck out, breaking Ouyang Ke's fan, tearing his clothes and killing all four of his concubines. As Guo Jing ran, she got him to carry her to chase after one of the fighters as she could not run due to her paralysis. While on Guo Jing's shoulders, she asked him once more for the Internal Cultivation techniques, which Guo Jing revealed to her. As the fight progressed with the four opponents, Mei Chaofeng continued questioning Guo Jing on the cultivation techniques, she became distracted and was struck by Ouyang Ke. As the battle progressed, the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan would arrive on the scene. Guo Jing dropped Mei Chaofeng as the Seven Freaks fought the four fighters. The battle finally ended when Yang Kang appeared calling for the four fighters to assist his "father", who was searching for Yang Kang's mother. The Seven Freaks left and when Mei Chaofeng realized Huang Rong had tricked her into believing her teacher was coming, the anger allowed the qi to flow through her body and allow her to walk again. Huang Rong escaped and after realizing that she was running, Mei Chaofeng once again felt numbness and lost consciousness. Death Mei Chaofeng would later run into the Seven Masters of Quanzhen, who were seeking revenge against Huang Yaoshi, who they believed to have killed their martial uncle Zhou Botong. The Seven Masters attacked and they battled furiously. Huang Yaoshi would then arrive with Ouyang Feng and quickly entered the battle. Unknown to Huang Yaoshi, Ouyang Feng attempted to strike him. Mei Chaofeng would step in the way and die from the blow. Martial Arts Mei Chaofeng's skills ranged from the Peach Blossom skills learned from Huang Yaoshi, the Iron Body and Golden Bell techniques, along with the poison whip, Heart Destroying Palm and the Jiu Yin White Bone Claw from the second volume of the Jiu Yin Zhen Jing. Category:Characters Category:Condor Trilogy Category:Jin Yong Characters